Preamble

ATI Technologies didn't consider the computer market in Russia as such
for a long time. Fortunately, time changes, now even the top Canadian officials
got the idea about how huge the Russian market is, how actively it develops
and grows.

We are not going to pour out loads of information on how much time and
efforts is spent to prove that the ATI's policy regarding Russia is not
correct. The key role was played by the European department of the company
and the subsidiary in France. The representatives of these departments
were in Moscow several times and thoroughly studied our market (thanks
to the meetings with leading dealers and distributors of computer components
in Russia). Now ATI Technologies is going to carry out an aggressive policy
on the Russian market where products based on NVIDIA processors are currently
prevailing (70%). Sure, I mean only the segment of video cards for desktop
computers.

Considering that ATI produces itself only a small share of video cards
based on its own chips, it's vital to attract to Russia its numerous partners.
That is why one of the aims of the Moscow's event is to demonstrate products
of some of ATI's partners and small presentations of the companies themselves
to draw attention of large distributors and trade companies which export
computer components.

The slogan was "With no limits in mind!" because the other target of
the forum was a seminar with leading software developers. The experts in
programming and 3D graphics technologies from ATI did therefore arrive.

After the introductory part the audience split into two flows: some
remained there to listen to the guys from ATI and its partners about the
market development, new products, and future directions; the others went
to the hall with computers spread all over there to get in touch with experts
from ATI in the sphere of programming and technologies. Alexander Medvedev
will share his impressions on this aspect in the Part 2 of this article.

January, 24th, about 9 a.m...

The guys from iXBT.com arrived there before the registration started, and
during hour and a half, waiting for the conference to start, we met colleagues,
discussed some intersting subjects and even had a breakfast. The forum
took place in the Golden Ring Hotel on the Smolenskaya street.

Here is our delegation. This is me:

then goes Alexander Medvedev (our 3D GURU)

Philipp Gerasimov (developer of the synthetic tests from RightMark
3D)

and Alexander Kondakov (who bears the main burden of 3Digest; also, he
is an expert in professional 3D accelerators sphere)

During the forum we had a lot of interesting meetings and pleasant talks.
Above you can feel the atmosphere of easiness, which, in this particular
case, is supported by the boss of 3DNews Andrey Kuzin :-)

So, while waiting for the fanfare (on the right is Konstantin Martynenko
AKA Kenguru, representative of Sapphire Technologies in Moscow, founder
of Reactor Critical site:

The forum was conducted on the high level. But a big fly in the ointment
was the fact that the thought of translating the speeches get into the
organizers' minds only at 9 a.m. Alas, it was impossible to find an interpreter
so quickly, and the forum had no interpretation (with rare exception -
later you will understand why).

Presentation of the Brand 2002 to ATI

Shortly before the conference we met Peter Edinger, ATI's Vice President,
and presented him on behalf of iXBT.com and its audience the Diploma certifying
that ATI Technologies is awarded with the title Brand 2002 according to
the poll carried out at the end of last year.

Start of the conference

Note that all the speeches were in English (with rare exception), that
is why the listeners had to speak it more or less well to understand the
speakers.

In his introductory speech Peter Edinger, Vice President, ATI, touched
upon the aspects of development of the Russian market and ATI's intention
to return: "ATI is back on Russia". From what I could understand, the policy
of ATI and its partners will become quite aggressive; the company isn't
going to lose the chance to fill a huge chunk of the market with its new
products: RADEON 9500-9700, as well as RADEON 9000-9100. It also referred
to the market of notebooks where RADEON Mobility based solutions are gaining
popularity now.

Stream splitting

After that a part of the audience, actually the software developers, left
the hall and headed toward the computer-room on the third floor. And then
everyone including Richard Huddy (head of the delegation of the technical
experts) submerged into the delightful world of technologies, shaders,
codec and models.

In course of the event, when they went out during the break, we could
clearly see what the loads were there judging by their bright faces :-).

Presentation go on...

In the hall for the press and representatives of trade companies the speakers
kept on giving their presentations. The next one on the scene was Norbert
Kuperjans, Technical Marketing Manager at ATI in Europe.

He spoke about development of the graphics processors and video cards for
the market of desktop systems. I guess you are well informed on the ATI's
current state of affairs in this sector and it's not needed to list the
products the company can offer today. Read our news and articles to be
up on all the events.

His speech was followed by a coffee-break during which the listeners
could share their impressions while having a bite:

During all the breaks everyone could take a closer look at the products
of the ATI's partners, in particular, Gigabyte:

SuperGrace:

HighTech Information System (HIS)

Hercules

Sapphire Technologies

YUAN

Presentations of the manufacturers

All speakers took the floor in the alphabetical order of the companies'
names. First of all CP Technologies's representative told us about their
solutions under the PowerColor trade mark (unfortunately, a strong Chinese
accent made the English speech of the Chinese girl hard to understand).

The next one was Connect3D which doesn't have a wide range of products
on the Russian market yet. It's planning on taking the position #1 in Europe
in selling the ATI based products.

Gigabyte was the third on the scene. Here the listeners could relax
and listen to the emotional speech of the company's representative because
the Gigabyte's models are well known in Russia, and its authority is traditionally
high.

The last one in the second part was Norbert Kuperjans again who outlined
the situation with ATI's products on the notebook market and on mobile
graphics in general.

He showed the chips with integrated memory (32 and 64 MB respectively):

as well as with external memory:

Then we had a break for lunch during which we kept on looking at products
of the ATI's partners, in particular, the Sapphire's monster: RADEON 9700
PRO Ultimate Edition with a heatsink from Zalman (without a fan):

The lunch wasn't scarce or dull at all as far as conversing with the ATI's
guys is concerned; in the informal atmosphere they turned out to be very
interesting people:

Then we had two more speeches: from Hercules Technologies and HighTech
Information System. The guys from Hercules were speaking in duet so sedately
like big bosses :-)

This part was also terminated by Norbert Kuperjans, this time with the
ATI's solutions from the sphere of integrated graphics.

After a small tea & coffee break the listeners came back to their
seats feeling a bit sleepy and tired, that is why the strategy of Sapphire
Technologies was cheering up the mass :-).

Daniel Forster and Dogmar Forster - they are not simply son and mother,
they are a harmonious duet! Especially when they asked the audience to
create images of a too annoying cooler, an improved cooler and... a noiseless
cooler (certainly, they meant the Ultimate Edition).

Daniel speaks Russian a little, and his speech was, as he called it, mixing
English-Russian. That was actually a performance, bright and animated,
as well as funny combinations of Russian and English words which turned
out to be an excellent "tonic" for the audience.

YUAN was the last company in the series of speeches from the ATI's partners.

At the end of the conference we listened to Sven Rathjen, ATI Sales
Director in Europe who took up some aspects of the ATI's new policy in
increasing sales and popularization of the ATI's products in Russia.

Finally, ATI Vice Manager in Europe - Piter Edinger made an attempt
to look to the future:

However, his corporate interests held him tied to the general phrases and
assurance that ATI would never leave the top position in 3D graphics as
it already had a number of interesting solutions.

When Mr. Edinger spoke in the morning the ATI's future plans were brought
to the words Next Generation. But that idyl was destroyed by the next speech
of a guy from CP Technology who presented the roadmap showing R350, RV350,
R400 and their approximate implementation time. When the information was
displayed the Vice President was taken aback at such straightforwardness.
Nevertheless, I can inform you that the R350 based cards will appear in
April this year, RV350 ones will come even a little earlier. Of course,
this is just a plan and it can be corrected any time. The R400 is due to
be released after July.

End of the forum

After all the speeches both flows got together again to have a snack and
share their impressions on what they saw and heard in the informal atmosphere.

We hope that such evens from ATI Technologies will become regular and
exciting, and all new products will be followed by bright and informative
presentations.

P.S. On the collage you can see boxes marked "Powered by ATI" with white
tablets. They were distributed at the forum as souvenirs. The tablets bewitch
those who eat them; eat just one and you will be a faithful fan of ATI...
Today one such tablet was swallowed by one of the guys of the site "NVIDIA
World"... in spite of my warning. If reviews at that site will start glorify
RADEON, do not blame me :-)

P.P.S. Surely, this is a joke. The boxes have very tasty mint candies.